FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 2020
 
COLLECT
Guard your Church, O Lord, with your perpetual mercy; and because in our frailty we cannot stand without your support, keep us always from all that may harm us; and lead us to all that is profitable for our salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
LESSONS
Joshua 24 : 14 -24
“Now fear the Lord and and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away your gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
 
Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve others gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our fathers up and out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”
 
Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
 
But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”
 
Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”
 
“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.
 
“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.
 
And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”
 
On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws.
 
Matthew 6 : 24 – 34
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one, and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 1You cannot serve both God and Money.
 
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
 
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even 2Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ Or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
 
1Certainly to be devoted to the increase of wealth. . . rules  out that devotion to God which alone is the ground of human integrity or wholeness. (H. Melinsky).
 
2Here the point is that the king was proverbial for magnificence. But not even that magnificence can compare to the way the flowers are clothed. One points to the basic unit; Solomon’s clothes could not compare to that of even one of the flowers. (Leon Morris).

LOYALTY TO GOD: WE WILL SERVE THE LORD

The fundamental condition of human nature is weakness. We are created for dependence upon the Lord - totally; he is to be our strength and our complete reliance is to be upon him. Our frailty as mere creatures is huge in every way. Physically we can only survive within very limited and congenial conditions that are moderated for our comfort. We have a well defined, confined range of adaptability and functional capacity. Under the force of various pressures and weights our bone structure is brittle and subject to fracture, and the flesh that envelopes our various vital organs and inner parts is very soft and tender. How vulnerable we happen to be. Humans can only prove to be strong in comparison with each other.
 
As a race we are all highly exposed to threatening dangers and hazards that can snuff us out in a moment and each of us eventually falls victim to the summons of death - brief life, earthly extinction. The best minds are ultimately delicate given the enormous strains and uncertainties in life that can be brought to bear, and the most resilient constitutions can eventually crack and collapse. In ourselves, under honest scrutiny, we are by nature extremely feeble. Most crucially, as a result of our breach with our Maker and Sustainer, we are fatally flawed and defective in a moral way, being also volitionally erratic, and subject to being easily swayed and unpredictable. It is only outlandish hubris that can cause us to be boastful and self-reliant. Written across our character in bold letters is the devastating description of the content of our hearts, “wickedness and inconstancy”.
 
It is our inconstancy, even as believers, that is addressed in our Scripture lessons for the day. With our speech we make great assertions and utter very solemn vows, but in fact our inner attitudes and outward behavior fall dismally low beneath the talk of the tongue, that instrument of falsehood and deception. It is even possible for we Christians to be unaware of the gravity of conceited, casual, insincere speech before God, and even directly in communication with him.

Joshua gives Israel opportunity to assess its genuineness of professed allegiance to its gracious liberator and deliverer. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” In reply Israel recites the benefits it received in covenant with the Lord, but Joshua knows the tendencies of the people to still cling to foreign gods they have discovered beyond the River and also currently adopted in the land they have by grace inherited. He declares their inability to cast these gods away. He knows that in spite of their profession of loyalty to God they remain untrue, and by intimating that in their hearts that they are wavering, he deftly touches on their inconstancy by posing an unavoidable decision: “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves. . .” Choices are determined by desires. The will of sinful man is not the arbiter of our deepest desires but their captive. Hence Joshua’s verdict on Israel’s verbal superficiality, “You are not able to serve the Lord.” The holiness of God, the claims and prerogatives of God do not appeal to the Israelites. Their false declaration acknowledges him but in their desires they abandon him.
 
Former idols of the heart may still beckon to us and stick to us annoyingly, and we can be tempted to cling to them and fall in line with their seductive suggestions - the acquisitions and ambitions fostered by the gods of gratification and worldly greatness are alluring, and may even take on a pronounced religious guise. We may wrongly perceive that “he is our God”, but he may simply be the figment of our own self-serving imagination and wants. Idols that are fabricated in the misled mind are, of all fancies, most dangerous. The Lord must teach us about ourselves as well as about himself. We must match together in a state of holiness. Serving the Lord is a costly, painful dying to self. We are not able, as Joshua recognized, to serve the Lord but by his grace and enabling alone.
 
The Lord Jesus is, of course, fully acquainted with our divided loyalties and inconsistencies, but he warns us that no one can really serve two masters, exercise a duality of devotion, or adhere to a plurality of allegiances. He specifically instances the ancient and yet very modern god, Mammon, a name which is now accurately rendered as Money. The pursuit of wealth and wellbeing for our own sakes and satisfaction is exceptionally perilous. Riches are not sinful in themselves. The moral issue to consider is how affluence is gained and as to how it is dispersed, but in our fallen state riches can cultivate many evils; failure in probity and rectitude, greed, arrogance, presumptuousness, social superiority, and that most fatal flaw of lack of reliance upon God.
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Our secret interior idols are simply expressions of the inclinations of the heart. Pursuit of our own preferences and proposed glamorous and gratifying results is the essence of idolatry. The goals and gains of our self-will are images of our own selves usurping the sovereignty and supply of the Lord. Our hearts are the chapels of our own ungodly desires and devotion. We neglect the comforts and commands of the word of God, his speech of endearment and demand. We repel his companionship and wise control.
 
The words of the Lord Jesus are powerfully striking and convicting, and they bring us to our knees in penitence and prayer:
 
“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And you shall love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
 

RJS

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 2020

THE COLLECT
Almighty and everlasting God, grant that by your help we may grow in faith, hope and love; and so that we may obtain what you promise, make us also to love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
LESSONS
2 Kings 5 : 9 - 16
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away saying, “Behold I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel. Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.” But he said , “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
 
Galatians 5 : 16 - 24
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. But those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
 
Luke 17 : 11 - 19
On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance, and lifted up their voices, saying. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.

THEY WERE CLEANSED

In popular terms many skin ailments in the Bible were defined as leprosy. Various infections and diseases happened to cause the embarrassment and alienation of victims, and members of society were naturally afraid of close contact. Social distancing is an ancient policy for the preservation of sound health. Lepers were considered vile and unclean by the public which shunned them mercilessly.
 
Naaman, a successful military strategist and commander, was shamed by an ugly skin disorder that could well have brought him disrespect and exclusion from the social circles to which he felt entitled. News of Elisha’s miraculous healing power brought him to the prophet’s door. He came in grand style worthy of his eminence that would surely impress the man of God and elicit a famous display of deferential and ceremonial healing. Elisha was not having it. Any worthy approach to his Lord required genuine humility, and a mere messenger was despatched to greet the proud Syrian victor of recent success.
 
Instructed to bathe in the Jordan, “Wash and be clean”, Naaman concluded that such compliance was beneath his dignity and refused to comply. So much was at stake that Naaman’s servants persuaded him to obey the prophet, and dipping himself seven times in Israel’s waters the choosy leader of his army emerged clean. The experience of divine power through the command of the prophet, to whom he did not wish to defer, brought the arrogant Syrian to the point of reverence toward’s Israel’s God. He became convinced of the uniqueness and sovereignty of God. What followed, we can only hope, was a walk with God and the conversion of some of his men.
 
Walking to Jerusalem through terrain where Jews and Gentiles would cross paths Jesus was encountered by ten lepers, who, shouting from a safe distance cried, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”. Jesus advised them to register with the priests as cleansed men. As they went they were healed. In the act of going they became knowing of the miracle that instantly restored them. It was a glorious discovery of the help of the Lord. Only one individual stopped to take stock of the situation, and gratitude overwhelmed his soul. He turned back, extolling God for his generous mercy, and fell joyfully and humbly at the feet of the Savior. Among the ten his praise and thankfulness were exceptional. And he was doubly despised; first as a leper, and then as a contemptible outsider - “Now he was a Samaritan” of whom nothing worthy was expected. The grace of the Lord Jesus is astonishing and immeasurable.
 
Paul addressed the Galatians with the description of the worst infection possible - the leprosy of the human soul. Its vile symptoms are enumerated by the apostle in shocking and convicting candor. His warning is that the uncured disease of sin definitely excludes the unrepentant, unregenerate from the wellbeing and blessedness of the kingdom of God. An internal cleansing and purification is necessary and its evidence is detected as the fruit of the Spirit, the marks of which he delineates for us. Our moral vileness, discerned in our uneasy conscience, is purified by the blood of Jesus shed on our behalf. A Substitute has borne the consequences of our many offenses. We are accepted and forgiven by God, and no longer under the condemnation of the law. And the Holy Spirit renews and refines our desires from here on.            
 
Naaman’s servants put him in mind of “the great word” spoken by Israel’s prophet. It was the remedy for his annoying plight. The people of God are now entrusted with the great word of the gospel, the only cure for the deadly pandemic of inborn sin that manifests itself in so many tragic and deadly ways in human life. By nature man is so often too proud to be reliant upon the merciful word of God, yield to the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust him for cleansing and cure. Our sinful ego must stoop before the Lord in faith and humility and trust the Redeemer who holds forth the only satisfactory remedy for the plague of human hearts.
 
It is spiritually and eternally fatal to repudiate the invitation of divine grace and forfeit life in the favor of God and everlasting communion with him. At this moment there is still opportunity for we lepers to cry out to the Lord Jesus himself, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”. Martin Luther opines that faith and humility  are indissolubly united as one in the penitent heart.
 
RJS

THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2020
 
COLLECT
 
Almighty and everlasting God, you who are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and are willing to give more than either we deserve or desire: Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things that cause guilt within us, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.
 
LESSONS
 
2 Corinthians 3 : 4 - 9
 
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
 
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
 
Mark 7 : 31 - 37
 
Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.
 
After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
 
Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”   

Miracles
 
I believe the miracles; but I believe in the miracles on account of Christ, instead of believing in Christ on account of the miracles.
 
If you dispense with the miraculous, there is a whole period of History (that of the Jewish nation), and a single transcendent Life (that of Jesus Christ), and one majestic Story (that of Christendom), which you’ve got to account for without it and you cannot. These three are inexplicable without miracle.
 
John “Rabbi” Duncan
 
 
A CLUSTER OF COMMENTS
 
The Collect
 
Collects, these brief weekly prayers adapted and arranged by Thomas Cranmer in the period of the English Reformation, constitute a treasury of doctrinal and devotional thought. They are choice nuggets of Christian desire and Scriptural understanding. They advise theological conviction and encapsulate reverent requests offered to God through the name of our Advocate Jesus Christ.
 
Collects express the yearning of our hearts corporately and individually in a manner and style that edifies our minds. Collects concisely summarize our approach to God on various occasions. If they were collated and compiled, literally collected together, they would provide us with a poetic systematic theology of great truth and beauty.
 
This week’s special prayer reminds us of the enormous generosity of the Lord who is ‘more willing to hear than we are to pray; more willing to give than we deserve or desire”. Our slackness and lack of expectancy in prayer ought to be dismissed by the belief of this amazing truth. We do not receive because we do not ask - certainly not with due faithfulness and fervor.
Unbelief and unresolved issues of conscience hinder and dampen our prayer. Our genuine unworthiness dissolves before the throne of grace when we approach our Father through the merits of Christ. He lays our petitions in the lap of the Lord.
 
Paul’s Thoughts on Confidence and Competence.
 
Apostolic ministry, and all subsequent ministry, is grounded in and performed through the power and enabling of divine grace. Licensed or lay, the service of the cause of Christ and his gospel should never be praised as human accomplishment.  Anything of benefit is always the result of God with us and in us, as Paul often states. “Not that we are competent in ourselves.” That is the admission of the people of God. “He has made us competent.” That is the confession of the true believer and sincere servant. There is no room for the self-congratulatory spirit among Christians. John Calvin is right to opine that the praise of men is theft of the glory of God.  Paul was by nature an inveterate boaster. It is evidence of great grace at work within him that he could wholeheartedly expresses entire reliance on the enabling and upholding of the Lord in his gospel endeavors.
 
Some folk of a wild disposition diminish the authority of Scripture by claiming that it is the dead letter, while their whims and hysterical action is of the Spirit. The fact is that the Spirit as author of the word will never contradict that word by creating uncontrolled excitement, self-will, personal display, and immoral action in any individual. The life of the Spirit is in the grasp of the meaning of Scripture and the obedience accorded to the book of the Lord. Paul is not attacking the literature of the Lord but the inability to listen to it in a vital and responsible way.
 
The Healing of the Man Who Was Deaf.
 
It was an act of kindness on the part of the people who brought the deaf man to Jesus for healing, and a demonstration of a degree of faith, certainly in the Lord’s power to heal. But the overriding expression of compassion, divine compassion, was exhibited by the Saviour. It is the close and direct concern and care of the Lord in dealing so personally with this unfortunate individual. He is taken aside from the crowd. Jesus’ interest in us is specific.
 
Jesus is not attracting attention as some sort of egotistical wonder worker. He even discourages publicity. Jesus’ concentration is upon the victim of serious handicaps in life. The man’s hearing is non-existent. Jesus places his fingers in the non-operative ears of the man for whom he feels genuine sympathy. Jesus touches the point of urgent need.
 
When Jesus aims to cure or console his aim is accurate.
 
The description of Jesus’ loosening of the tongue and the removal of the poor man’s speech impediment is graphic in relating the very committed involvement of the great Physician of human ills. With his own spit he moistens the invalid’s tied and almost silent organ of speech. This is an intimate gift of the capacity to vocalize from the Redeemer to a very frustrated human being.
 
The God-man looks upward to the source of his remarkable miraculous power: “He looked up to heaven.” His concern to heal is so intense that he emits a deep sigh. The Man of Sorrows identifies with the sufferer before him and who is looking to him. He issues the command of deliverance from infirmity. “Be opened!” The dysfunctional ears are opened and the tongue was released “so that he began to speak plainly”. The gracious action of the Lord is complete. The 1662 version of the narrative is striking: “The string of his tongue was loosed.” It causes you to feel the reality of what had occurred so wonderfully.
 
All our physical faculties are gifts from our marvelous Maker, thus with our senses we are equipped for awareness of God’s creation around us. We are able to make adventurous discoveries in the realm of the Lord’s material and visible handiwork.  But our stock of means of perception betoken something even more profound - the faculties of mind and spirit that are meant to perceive divine messages and meaning as he communicates them in his self-disclosure and the revelation of his mind. We have the eyes and ears of the heart, the taste for knowledge, we inhale the perfume of beauty as it wafts toward us, and we sense the sources of pleasure.
 
Our mental and spiritual functions correspond to physical functions, and through them we register experience more profound and intense than bodily sensation. That is why the word of God exhorts us to hear the truth it conveys, see the glory of the Lord it portrays, taste of his goodness that it describes, smell his proximity, and feel his love. and translate all awareness and experience to sweet communion with our Triune Maker and Redeemer.
 
RJS

Luke 18:31-43 cf. Matt 20:17-19, Mark 10:32-34

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Jesus intimates his Messianic destiny to his chosen twelve as they stride forth to Jerusalem.  His resolve and physical strength are manifested in his marching ahead of the disciples who had a strong sense that the journey was somehow ominous and that Jerusalem would not be friendly toward their Master.  The Lord’s gait and perhaps stern face caused them to quiver.
 
Taking the twelve aside (there may have been others accompanying them) Jesus disclosed the purpose of his approach to the Jewish capital as forecast by the prophets.  His going up to Jerusalem was a very determined and deliberate walk of obedience.  He knew that he faced a grim prospect and he chose to confide in his closest friends.
 
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of man will be accomplished.  For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day he will rise again” (vv 31 - 33).
 
The most significant events in Earth’s history are related so succinctly.  The mood of the Savior must have been one of deep foreboding, and yet of supreme confidence in the Father’s decreed outcome.  Jesus would be a sacrificial victim who would be raised again.  Jesus did not elaborate upon the meaning of his death and resurrection at this time.  The coming straight-forward facts through which human salvation is wrought would be sufficient at the moment for the disciples to absorb.  Clues to his atoning work were to be found in the Hebrew scrolls but the disciples were not at this stage of spiritual immaturity adept at picking them up.  The events and their essence were not intelligible to them in a twofold sense.
 
“And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said” (v34).  Christ’s process of self-disclosure its gradual and highly personal.  It emerges from his divine sovereignty as the Word.  “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.  All things have been committed to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11: 25-27).
 
The chosen of Jesus are first taken aside for reliable knowledge of the historical facts.  These were declared to the twelve.  But facts alone are not sufficient for saving faith.  The meaning of them was hidden from the disciples.  Human intelligence cannot discern salvation meaning in bare facts.  We are blind and it is the divine prerogative to explain the facts.  This Jesus does by his Spirit in his own good time.  He takes us aside individually and personally to illuminate both the information concerning him, and our eyes to perceive him with the eye of faith, a gift of grace.  Aptly, the incident of the blind beggar receiving his sight (vv35-42) is skillfully appended to Jesus’ prediction delivered on the road.  He speaks this command to our soul.  “Receive your sight:  your faith has healed (saved) you (v42).
 
RJS

The Messiah in the Psalms   
OUR GOD IS A GOD WHO SAVES   
Psalm 68: 19 – 26

Our psalm is a hymn, first of assurance, and second a song of anticipation. It affirms great confidence in Israel’s God:
     Our God is a God who saves (v20).

In expectation before the temple, seeing only the singers, musicians, and maidens approaching the place of worship - a procession of mere people - the poet with keen spiritual eye and prophetic insight perceives a human and ceremonial representation of the advance of the Messiah:
     Your procession has come into view, O God, the procession of my God and king into the sanctuary (v24).

The coming Messiah is a Savior in a comprehensive way. He bears daily burdens (v19). He preserves from death (v20). He overthrows his enemies who naturally oppress his people. His enemies are those who go on in their sins (vv21-23).

The consequence of all these things is the fulsome praise of God:
     Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior (v19). Praise God in the great congregation; praise the Lord in the assembly of Israel (v26).

The faith of Israel was very firmly placed in the One who was to come. He would deal with troubles, with enemies, and with death. Messiah would come in great strength. He would arrive and behave as Sovereign Lord. This inspired forecast would be ratified and verified in very similar words by the father of the Baptist, Zechariah the priest. That which was prophesied is now present. Israel rejoiced in the promise; now the people of God may acclaim the advent of Messiah.

Zechariah produces a two-fold hymn of holy rejoicing (Luke1:68-79). Part one describes Messiah’s purpose. The second part describes the heavenly assignment of John his newborn son. Both portions of Zechariah’s song exult in Jesus as Savior, Rescuer, and Redeemer. The words of psalm and song closely correspond. The sentiments correspond exactly.

There is obvious unity in the offering of praise to God. Salvation in all its aspects is granted. Relief from the hatred and harm of the enemy is pledged. Mercy will abound. Fear will be dispelled. Holiness and righteousness will be bestowed throughout life.

Just as the psalmist can aver that God bears his peoples’ burdens, so the priest can render the assurance that divine upholding will assist believing folk throughout the full stretch of their earthly course.

The Jerusalem procession preceded the coming of the Anointed. John the Baptist would precede Messiah more closely. John would point to the great event of forgiveness of sins in the lives of the penitent, announce the divine mercy, and apprise people of the way of salvation and the path of peace.

Both psalmist and priest declare “that our God saves”. Future and fulfillment are both covered by the faithfulness of God. And we who read both compositions possess the warrant of our faith.

(Psalm 110 : 1 - 5)
 
Historically, the Christian church has veered between the sweet Christ and the conquering Christ, between the Christ of mercy and the Christ of wrath. Martin Luther compensated for the imbalanced emphasis on divine anger in his time by emphasizing the compassion of the Savior in his teaching of justification by faith.
 
The tendency should not be to veer over much toward the warrior Christ, or to favor the sweet Christ, but to incorporate within our understanding both the sweetness and the severity of the Lord Jesus. Christ exercises judgment and mercy in his governance of humankind. We should not focus on Christ as timid or tame nor should we view him as a figure of terror eager to cut us down. We live in a limited period of reprieve when sinners all are exhorted to make peace with God through the Redeemer. Amnesty is recommended to all through the gospel. But neglect of the gospel may result in sudden retribution. We cannot toy with the righteous God.
 
There is that beautiful sentiment enunciated in the Belgic Confession of Faith (Reformed) Article XXVI, Christ’s Intercession: “But this Mediator, whom the Father has appointed between him and us, ought in no wise to affright us by his majesty, or cause us to seek another according to our fancy. For there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth, who loves us more than Jesus Christ… If, then, we should seek for another mediator who would be favorably inclined towards us, whom could we find who loved us more than he who laid down his life for us, even ‘while we were his enemies’”.
 
The scepter of Christ is extended over the entire cosmos. It is sovereign over all rebel forces measuring, restraining, countering their evil ways. Soon it will be wielded to shattering effect as God decrees the destruction of all his foes. The armies of rebellion will be routed. The scepter of Christ rises protectively over his people and they yield themselves eagerly to his rule. Christ exercises universal dominion throughout the farthest reaches of the heavens and the vastness of space. Christ is sovereign over the interior of every human life and every historical event that occurs. Everything contributes to the manifestation of his majesty, the glory of the Godhead, and the mercy and justice of heaven.
 
Nothing depletes his power or diminishes the effectiveness of his attributes. His perfection and sufficiency never wanes. All his qualities coalesce in the holy development of his most wise purposes. Christ is to be feared and trusted. Christ is to be believed and obeyed. Christ is to be adored and worshipped. Saint or sinner dwell under his mighty scepter. Happy are those who may call him “my Lord”.

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Isaiah 11 : 1 -10
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In his Pensées (Thoughts) Blaise Pascal is most emphatic of the sublime role of Israel’s prophets in announcing the eventual coming of Messiah for “some four thousand years” of the foretelling of his Advent. Pascal’s sentiments are warmly personal toward “my Saviour who came to earth to die and suffer for me in the time and circumstances foretold.” The most important birth in human history is not related as mere fact or event in time but as a personal gift of grace and joy from God (Luke 2:10, “good news of a great joy,” meaning Jesus).
 
It is fascinating to trace the forecasts of the arrival of the Redeemer of the world and to think that his coming has been foretold for millennia in a variety of ways and figures, and under the various titles that will describe his person and offices. The pulse and drumbeat of the Promise increases as we scan the details of his assured arrival. The Bible in its entirety is the Book of Christ. It is so enticing to capture the developing prophetic message of the Scriptures concerning the Lord Jesus; so arresting to apprehend God’s pledge and preparation to retrieve us to himself through the adorable God-Man – the uniqueness and sufficiency of his purpose of rescue from the mire of sin and prospect of doom.
 
The Old Testament is a library of treasured documents of anticipation of the time and circumstances of our glad deliverance from servitude to evil and alienation from our Maker. There is within it the throb and thrill of union with our soul’s lover and friend and the cancellation of our grim and deserved death as penalty for our rebellious breach with the Triune Almighty One. The Offended forgives and removes our offenses through his substitutionary suffering and death. Every intimation concerning the Messiah is alluring and overwhelming in its significance. Aspects of his nature or character, his undertaking on our behalf, are too colossal for our comprehension to adequately grasp. We are caused to review and ponder the assertions of the Scriptures over and over again, to contemplate them at depth.
 
The things averred by Isaiah about Jesus, for instance, are riddles that incite a sense of profound mystery and delicious intrigue.  In verse one the Messianic figure is referred to as a shoot “that will come up from the stump of Jesse”, the father of King David. The Christ will emerge from Royal background, and yet a Royalty that far exceeds mere earthly dignity (great David’s greater son). This pre-eminence is indicated in verse ten where Messiah is described as the Root of Jesse, by implication the eternal source of David’s regal dignity.  And so the human and divine natures of Israel’s Redeemer are predicated in the One who is both Root and Shoot. The Lord Jesus is both the Base and the Branch of the Royal tree; its producer and product of the Lord’s saving grace, the fruit of divine efficiency. How beguiling this wondrous insight happens to be.
 
How well-equipped our Saviour happens to be: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (v2). The Lord Jesus is the ordained, resourced, and reliable salvager of lost and believing humanity. Like Blaise Pascal we may be able to confess his lovely and endearing words: “I stretch out my hands to my Saviour.”
 
RJS

1 Chronicles 29:10-13
 
David’s Prayer
(NIV)
 
David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,
 
“Praise be to you, Lord,
    the God of our father Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
 
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
    you are exalted as head over all.
 
Wealth and honor come from you;
    you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
    to exalt and give strength to all.
 
Now, our God, we give you thanks,
    and praise your glorious name.
 
In this comprehensive outburst of prayer David sums up many reasons in both God, and his actions, that are worthy of our whole-hearted praise. God is the author of our faith tradition, its Hebrew origins and our Christian inheritance from that prophetic source. In Holy Scripture we hear from our fathers as well as our Father. The God who has blessed us is everlasting in his being and everlasting in his faithfulness, and we are secure in him everlastingly. A joy to know.
 
God’s personal and essential nature is great and infinitely powerful. He is radiant with uniquely divinely brilliant, bright, blazing and burning excellence and beauty; his glory, majesty, and splendor which David acknowledges and honors in exuberant language of admiration. This wonderful God, David affirms, is the owner of everything: for everything in heaven and earth is yours. The kingdom of creation is God’s. The renewed creation, as the kingdom of righteousness through redemption, will recognize the Lord as head over all.
 
All benefits are bestowed by God from his infinite bounty, at his discretion as his sovereign and indisputable prerogative. All blessings material, circumstantial, or of the mind and soul –  everything that we appreciate comes from him. All the energy and capacities, physical, mental, and spiritual that we exert are at his enabling. A generous Giver governs the earth. The strength and power of God in varying degrees empower us all. “All things are yours”, we say, and in our devotion “we admit, and of your own do we give you”.
 
The treasure that we bring to him in whatever power he has given us – the love and honor of our hearts, our time, our skills, our service in many forms, the substance that we can afford after all obligations are met – these are the treasures of a grateful and dependent being who humbly confesses: It comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you (v17).
 
RJS

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1 Corinthians 15:1-11
 
Paul exhorts believers to hold firmly to the Gospel. It comes initially as information that is genuinely true and Christians may stand upon it with absolute confidence. It is grounded in accurate history and to embrace it does not entail any gullibility whatsoever whatever those who deny it and oppose it may allege.
 
Paul preaches the Gospel with definite certainty in its veracity and its power to salvage the sinful. “By this Gospel you are saved” (v3). The apostolic pledge of the efficacy the message concerning Jesus Christ is the incentive to persevering faith. He addresses the possibility that faith may be professed but not actually possessed within the heart. A superficial belief is in vain. It is found at the tip of the head but is not grounded in the soul.
 
Paul avers the twofold grasp of the apostolic report concerning the Redeemer he proclaims:

a) The tidings concerning Christ are solidly, soundly historical. The details of Jesus’ life and ministry are true. The supremely saving events related by his followers are indisputably real. Christ died, was buried, and rose again (vv. 3-4). The crucifixion was viewed by many - those who loved Jesus and those who loathed him sufficiently enough to kill him. His advocates and enemies stared at the same cruel cross. Roman soldiers saw him expire and certified his demise. Jewish dignitaries buried him. His body was not interred in the earth but laid on a shelf in a rich man’s grave (Joseph of Arimathea). In the cold, dank tomb the Savior was raised to life. The power of the Lord performed the Resurrection on the third day of his decease. The marvel amazed his friends and disciples. They observed together the wonderful work of God.  

b) Peter the denier was especially summoned to see him. The twelve beheld him. Subsequently, five hundred of the band of brothers and believers saw him alive at the same time. This was no illusion - hundreds of people hallucinating together. When Paul was corresponding with the Corinthian church most of the observers were still alive and could guarantee their experience. James should be included on the list of witnesses, and also the totality of the remaining apostles following Judas’ suicide.  
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Finally, Paul adds his encounter with the risen Lord. He knows fully all that he is expatiating upon so convincingly. He knows nothing can be denied and that every fact must be declared. “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance” (v3). Paul received the assurance of the disciples, the report of the five hundred, and then the confirmation of the Messiah’s personal appearance on the Damascus Road.
 
The interpretation of the death, burial, and rising again of the Lord Jesus is enunciated by the apostle. It is the primary principle of the Gospel - all Christian thought, understanding, and proclamation “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (v3). This theme is wide-ranging in its application, but it should never be overlooked that the essence of Christian faith and discourse is “Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23). God is best known through his Son nailed to the cross (here we see his heart and the direction of his power), and all things are to be viewed and evaluated through Christ, “who has become for us the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:30). Through belief of the Gospel the truth of history becomes the treasure of the heart.

RJS

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Jeremiah 26: 1-16
 
Preaching the truth of God is a perilous pursuit. It is a certainty that certain people will not like it. It is a guarantee that some folk will resent it. It is inevitable that many hearers will repudiate it. It is incontrovertible that a number of listeners to the word of God will tweak and twist it to their own liking or prejudiced perception of matters and react angrily. The word of God is not popular to the natural mind or the un-renewed heart. It is a strong temptation to resort to human invention that will please the gallery. There are faithful prophets and false prophets, and the latter abound.
 
Gentle Jeremiah was called to the role of faithful prophet - a severe vocation for a very sensitive man. No sane person wishes to be the bearer of bad news, but the good news of the gospel can only be preceded by the bad facts of human guilt, disobedience, and estrangement from God and the curse it entails. Evil results in self-wrought disaster against which God so graciously warns.
 
An ambassador has no right to alter his master’s message. The ambassadors of Christ are attuned to the words of the Lord to Jeremiah: “Tell them every word I command you; do not omit a word” (v. 2). The message to be delivered is the doctrine of Holy Scripture with all the exactitude that the Spirit and his guidance enable.
 
Jeremiah is the great example of the reluctant preacher - not from rebelliousness but sensitivity to the consequences. Not because he would be despised and ill-dealt with (though this would in no way be desirable) but because rejection of the word is dire in its effects.
 
Obdurate persons convert the gospel into an instrument of self-harm attracting its judgment upon themselves through either unbelief or deliberate and ultimate dismissal of any hope of the proffered mercy of God. The actual words of God to lawless Jerusalem were given to the prophet. They had to be spoken with a confidence and vigor not natural to Jeremiah. But God gave to this fearful man a compulsion to utter his truth. It was a daunting assignment, a righteous task from a righteous God, but it was also a compassionate word of warning to the heedless and the hardened over the welfare of their souls.
 
God had borne with his people over long periods and a lengthy catalogue of calls to repentance, and the gaining of his warm forgiveness. But to no avail. Now was the crucial moment when divine delay was no longer possible or of benefit to a willful populace.
 
Preaching is not primarily an exercise in public or religious oratory pleasing to ear, emotion, and intellect. It is the declaration of an urgent bidding to turn to God, to reconciliation with him, rescue from peril, and the delight of communing with him and his redeemed people everlastingly.
 
Jeremiah’s ordeal and rough treatment was a foreshadowing of our race’s disdain for the Lord Jesus who testified, “I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has told me.” We do well to listen to the prophet par excellence.


RJS